On Clients and Marketable Nuggets, an Entrepreneur Asks: What is Grok?

by Jill Foster on October 5, 2009

What is grok?
A techi geek word, to grok is a coinage of science-fiction writer R.A. Heinlein, meaning to understand something thoroughly by having empathy with it. Urban Dictionary also defines it as “to drink” (I’m definitely not referring to that meaning of grok in this post!).

On design (and beyond)
Empathy is a willingness to learn, unflawed by accusation or judgment. In design, it is a complete acceptance and understanding of your end-user. It is a self-less approach that requires conscious effort and practice to completely put yourself in another person’s shoe and create a product that he or she will find useful and user-friendly.

Clients and that empathic first look
Often my empathic first look almost always leads to a number of interesting ideas to explore for clients and personal friends. At times I am accused of already having figured things out…the truth is ‘NOT!’ It’s just that often times people have simply given me a wealth of material to work with by sharing whatever is on their mind about an idea, product, career, etc.

The rest is about making a life choice based on comfort levels and then taking action. Having an empathic look at life and those around you is a great way to learn and discover a world and point of view apart from your own. It is the source of my relentless energy as an entrepreneur.

Guest contributor Jessica Valenzuela is the founder and principal of MavinDigital, a 360 degree digital product and marketing company. She is closely associated with Springboard Enterprises and Astia, two exciting organizations that mentor, incubate, and invest in high-growth, women-led companies. Also collaborating regularly with Columbia Univeristy’s Women’s Entrepreneur Network, Jessica can be reached through her blog Mashup and also on Twitter (http://twitter.com/mavindigital).